
Gass. 
Book. 



L 






3IOURNFUL EASTER 



n 



_A. DISCOURSE 



HEL1VERED IN THK 



Hj£ 



CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 



On EASTER DAY, APRIL 19, 1865, 



BY THE RECTOR, REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D. 



Being the second day after the Assassination of the President of the 

United States, and a similar attempt upon the Secretary of 

State, on the nic.ht of Good Friday. 



&^>- 



WASHINGTOX : 
GIDEON tt PEARSON, PRINTERS. 

1865. 




A. MOURNFUL EASTER. 



-A. IDISCOTTIE^SIE 



DELIVERED 1\ THK 



CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 



On EASTER DAY, APRIL 1<>, 1865, 



BY THE RECTOR, REV. CHARLES H. HALL, D. D. 



Being the second day after the Assassination of the President of the 

United States, and a similar attempt upon the Secretary of 

State, on the night of Good Friday. 



WASHINGTON: 
GIDEON & PEARSON, PRINTERS. 

1865. 




IE- 



CORRESPONDENCE 



359 H Street, 
Washington City, April 17, 1865. 

Rev. Charles H. Hall, D. D. 

Dear Sir: — At a meeting of the Congregation of Epiphany Church, this 
evening, the undersigned were appointed a committee to express to you the 
gratification with which they listened to the sermon which you delivered on 
Easter morning, and to request a copy thereof for publication. 

We, therefore, respectfully request that you furnish us a copy at your 
earliest convenience. 



Very truly, 



CHARLES KNAP, 

St. JOHN B. L. SKINNER, 

THOS. R. WILSON. 



Washington, Epiphany Rectory, April 19, 18G5. 
To Messrs. Charles Knap, St. John B. L. Skinner, Thos. R. Wilson. 

Gentlemen :— The wish of the Congregation of Epiphany Church in a matter 
of this kind is, of course, law with us ; and I herewith send you the manu- 
script of the Sermon of Easter Sunday morning. It is a simple word of feeling 
from all our hearts, and may possibly be interesting and useful to others. 
We who have known the private history of the distinguished subject of the 
Discourse as a neighbor, as well as his official actions as the Chief Magistrate 
of the nation, I doubt not all, without exception, will feel disposed with 
me to complete the passage of the poet to which I have alluded : 

" Besides this Duncan 
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clear in his great joffiu', that his virtues 
Will plead like angel.', tr-umpet-tongucd, against 
The deep damnation of'h'-s taking off." 

As my own small tribute to his memory, who has given me reasons of my 
own for lamenting him, I commit the Discourse to you and the Congregation 
of the Epiphany, with assurances of my esteem. 

CH. II. HALL, Rector. 



These Prayers for the Country were used between the Morning Prayer and 
the Order of the Holy Communion. 

PRAYEE. 

Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting and 
power infinite ; Have rnercy upon the whole Church and 
Country; and so rule the hearts of those who are in chief 
power and authority in this Nation, that they, knowing 
Whose ministers they are, may above all things seek 
Thy honor and glory ; and that we, and all those who are 
subject to their administration of the Constitution and 
Laws by which they and we are governed, duly consider- 
ing Whose authority they bear, may faithfully serve, 
honor, and humbly obey the law of the land by them ad- 
ministered and executed, in Thee and for Thee, according 
to. Thy blessed Word and Ordinance; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, Who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, 
liveth and reigneth ever, world without end. Amen. 



Most Gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee, as for 
the people of these United States in general, so especially 
for all those who in Council are now called on to assist in 
restoring to peaceful and orderly course the affairs of this 
whole Nation; that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct 
and prosper all their consultations, and to guide and fur- 
ther their proceedings, to the advancement of Thy glory, 
the good of Thy Church, the safety, honor, and welfare 
of Thy people; that all things may be so ordered and 
settled by their endeavors, upon the best and surest 
foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, 
religion and piety may be established among us for all 



generations. These and all other necessaries, for them, 
for ns, and Th} T whole Church, we humbly beg in the 
Name and mediation of Jesus Christ, our most blessed 
Lord and Saviour. Amen. 



O merciful God and heavenly Father, who hast taught 
us in Thy Word that Thou clost not willingly afflict or 
grieve the children of men; we humbly beseech Thee of 
Thy goodness to comfort and succor all those w T ho are at 
this time suffering in the miserable calamities brought 
upon this Nation and Cit}- by violence and civil war. 
Mercifully vouchsafe supplies of spiritual strength and 
consolation to the wounded, sick, and dying, and raise 
up friends for them in their need. Be a Father to the 
fatherless and a Husband to the widow. Furnish shelter 
to the homeless, sustenance to the impoverished, support 
to the bereaved and destitute. Lighten the bonds of 
those who are captives or in prison. Give all, in their 
several visitations, a right understanding of themselves 
and of Thy threats and promises, that they may neither 
cast away their confidence in Thee, nor place it anywhere 
but in Thee. Relieve the distressed, protect the innocent, 
and awaken the guilty; and forasmuch as Thou alone 
bringest light out of darkness, and good out of evil, make 
the manifold forms of human suffering now darkening our 
land effectual tor the' conversion of many souls to Thee, 
thai among us fruits meet for repentance may be abund- 
antly broughl forth, and that the glory of thy grace may 
be made known among all nations, now and forever- 
more; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



DISCOURSE. 



" I am the Resurrection and the Life." — St. John xi. 25. 

The words of the Burial service are the appropriate 
words of tins troubled Easter morning. We had prepared 
to leave behind us the gloomier thoughts of the tomb, 
and decking it, as it were, with flowers and palm branches, 
to gaze with serene eye steadfastly on the glorious morn- 
ing of the Resurrection ; to forget for a while the instinctive 
repugnance of the human heart at the short interval of 
the grave ; to look beyond it to the abodes of our expected 
reward, where tears shall be wiped from all eyes, and the 
disquieting fears which beset us here in the world of 
chances and changes would give way to eternal repose 
and joy. But we are called in the providence of God to 
look more at the sorrows than the joys that surround the 
Christian's hope; to weep with those who weep rather 
than dwell upon the topics of our exulting hope. On the 
night of that first Good Friday, the narrow tomb of the 
rich man of Arimathea, which he had hewn out in his 
little rocky garden spot, wherein he hoped himself, after 
a quiet departure from the troubles of earth, to sleep with 
his fathers, held the hastily buried remains of his Master. 
Violence and crime Lad done their work, and the One 
who came to bless our race had been slain by wicked 
hands; and a few trembling disciples, shocked by the 
overthrow of all their hopes, outraged by the horrible 
passions of their unbelieving countrymen, were hiding in 
retired places, and telling with scared faces, That this 



f 



6 

was He Who, we had thought, would bring salvation unto 
Israel. Words would fail to picture their grief and horror. 
Perhaps nothing could communicate the sense of it to 
our hearts more effectually than the feelings which now 
weigh heavy upon all our hearts in common, as we mourn 
together in our national bereavement. There can, of 
course, be no proper comparison made between any mor- 
tal man and the Son of God. We need not be suspected 
of making it, after joining, as we have done, in the words 
of the ancient Creed, that Jesus Christ was " God of 
God — of the same substance with the Father." But He 
became a man and was found in the form of a servant, 
and stooped to the death of the Cross, with all its indig- 
nities and cruelties, that we might always draw together 
under the shadow of that Cross, and feel in Him our 
mutual sympathy in all sudden calamities, and draw from 
His religion the strength to do our common duties; the 
hope to sustain us under our common griefs. We gather 
now around an open grave, permitted to be opened on 
this Easter Day by the awful and wicked tragedy of this 
last Good Friday, to temper our pious gratulations as be- 
lievers with the sorrow which has befallen us as citizens. 
The grave and gate of death opens before us as a people, 
and we mourn the sanguinary crimes which have made 
our Good Friday so marked an event in the history of the 
world. It becomes us to mingle the Easter-chant, with the 
minor wail of the Miserere, and to pray God not to forsake 
us, nor let the ungodly get the upper hand. We are an 
afflicted nation, horrified by the darkest crimes which can 
befall a people. Yet, even here, let us pass beyond the 
thinsrs which are seen; and our common faith at once 
opens to ns its own lessons of trust in I linivho is the Resur- 



rection and the Life, who ever liveth to make intercession 
for ns. The frightfulness of the times may make the 
blood well nigh stop at the core of the heart; the success 
of crime appalls the reason of the bravest. That one 
horror, which had thus far been spared us, now to fall 
so suddenly, so unresisted, causes the mind to pass back 
in gloomy retrospect, to recall the like events in the past, 
and the miserable accompaniments that attended them. 
We are paralyzed. That our people — so free to debate 
their perplexities, so fair and manly in the almost un- 
licensed discussion of them, so patient in waiting for their 
normal solution — should be thus defeated of their hopes 
and robbed of their rejoicing in the very moment when 
we were all taking breath after the trials of the past 
struggle; when we were hoping that God's great boon of 
love and reconciliation was about to glide down upon 
bleeding hearts in all this land — it is the most tremendous 
blow, the most fearful calamity that has ever befallen us. 
We can only stand appalled. We can only gather in our 
homes, where tears and sighs have attested our instinctive 
sympathy with the afflicted, and bow before the Supreme 
Ruler of all events, and cry to Him, " Spare thy people, 
Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach." We 
may wisely strive to gather such comfort as we may, by 
our faith, from the assured hopes of the Christian 
covenant. 

Christ is the Resurrection and the Life — not merely 
promises it, not only has sought out the causes of it, but 
Himself is it. He died that He might go down into the 
dark hopeless chambers of the grave, and there prepare a 
way for us — there get the victory over death — and rising 
again from the grave ascend on high, leading captivity 



captive, and give us men the pledge of a like resurrection. 
He gave us the profound assurance that He rules over us 
in all the ages; that He guides for us the world and all its 
changes; that there can nothing die which is His truth; 
that even if individuals pass away the Truth, guided by 
Him, lives and moves on, and will have its due success by 
His care. This resurection of Christ gave us not alone 
the pledge of individual resuscitation from the grave. 
Great as that advantage is to each individual; as pure and 
blessed a revelation as that personal hope is to each soul 
which goes down to the grave ; the other lesson is as 
grand and replete with comfort. The apostles, each pro- 
claimed his single belief in his own resurrection, cheered 
his disciples in all the Churches with the exulting argu- 
ments which told that as in "Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive;" yielded each his spirit in 
peace, like St. Stephen, as seeing the Lord Jesus standing 
at the right hand of God. 

But there is another lesson in it, which they and all 
Christians have received deep into their consciousness — 
the fact that in Christ, the great law of Truth and Love, 
which underlies all our civilization, can never die. I do 
not fancy an Apostle of Jesus, as he felt his life slipping 
away in agony, as lie looked around on faces of enemies, 
taunting him with every epithet of shameful abuse, and 
glaring upon him with the scowlings of brutal rage, com- 
forting himself with the individual consolation: "] shall 
rise again: I shall turn to tin' dust, but that dust of mine 
shall be watched by angels, and at the resurrection recalled 
and changed into a glorious and spiritual body." No; 
this may have formed their subject of rejoicing, as they 
sang psalms and hviiius in hours of respite. This became 



9 

their grand argument as they combatted unbelief or re* 
buked sin. This was the theme of their discourse as they 
bent over the parchment on which with the stylus they 
wrote the words of quiet and serenest comfort to the 
Christians, who were not yet "resisting unto blood," but 
only bearing up under ordinary trials. But when the 
hour of their own final trial came, they doubtless (as I 
conceive of them) were wrought up to a grander theme : 
that in Christ, the Truth could never die. Even pagans 
had taught them the great fact, that it was easy to die for 
one's country, When the faith iu their country was strong 
in them. Even old jSTorsemen have set before us the 
image of this great consolation ; and their scalds represent 
their heroes when overcome in battles, chanting the songs 
of their national glory; that while they as individuals fly 
away to the halls of Valhalla, the life of the people ever 
lives on. And those loving hearts, which had endured 
and dared all things for others* — who, moved by Divine 
pity had learned to forget self in charity to the miserable 
of all countries — when their hour of martyrdom came at 
last, laid down their lives in sublime trust, that while they 
as individuals perished, the Church could never perish. 
They felt themselves to be but particles running in the 
veins and arteries of the Spiritual Body. That Body 
would live on, though they passed out of sight. " The 
gates of death" could never prevail against it. It had 
risen in Christ and would live even by their sorrows; 
Would gain new strength from their defeat, would yet 
crown their names with testimonials of gratitude for the 
blessings purchased by their >w faithfulness unto death." 
It is that profound faith in the spiritual oversight of 
Christ over us. in our Christian civilization, which has 



10 

made the deaths of individuals tolerable — which gives us 
a solemn strength in the midst of the most agitating 
doubts and the gloomiest disasters. Martyrs in all ages 
have taught us the meaning of that quaint merriment of 
the noble old bishop at Oxford, as he said : " "We 
shall light this day a candle which shall give light to all 
England." 

When in old Rome, Osesar fell before the daggers of 
assassins, there was a gloom which hang like a pall over 
the whole laud, unrelieved by one certain, assured hope 
of the future ; but to-day, much as we have quaked in hor- 
ror at the atrocious crimes which have defiled the land with 
the blood of unresisting victims, we unconsciously rest as- 
sured of our Future. There may yet be circles of trouble 
and fear, but the stream will again run smooth, and the 
Country, after its scourging has passed and its wild pas- 
sions are quieted, will once more pass on to its high place 
in the catalogue of the nations. We have this faith deeper 
fixed than we think it, till some severe trial brings it 
to the surface. We may call it up as the true lesson to 
us of this great Christian festival. And if any one has 
made the wretched mistake of doubting this deep faith 
in this nation, or supposing that our life has hung en- 
tirely on any single individual, he has only by a dastardly 
cowardice given us the opportunity of showing the vi- 
tal force of the institutions which we have received from 
our forefathers. Let us in that sublime conviction loan 
back on our trust in God and "dwell in the land and be 
doing good." Let us join to remember that vengeance 
belongeth to the Lord, and administer justice upon the 
guilty, unruffled by the passions or the fears of the first 
shock of alarm. Our country will enshrine the fallen in 



11 

her inmost heart, will forget their errors, if they had them, 
will pardon their faults, such as they were, and give them 
a glorious record of her love and gratitude, such as they 
might have missed by a gentler exit. I do not make 
them out to be martyrs to Religion, but to their Country. 
They have died in the midst of a community, that has 
thrilled with horror at the utter wantonness of the deed ; 
its mere stupid, brutal, theatrical revenge. No cause of 
all those for which men are struggling can be supposed 
by the most fanatical imagination to be advantaged by 
this deed. If it has been plotted to defeat our national 
life and to hurry us into anarchy, it will take but one calm 
hour of reflection to show the madness of such a hope. 
We are not the Christian people I wish and pray we may 
be ; we are in many things too careless and profane ; we 
have too often forgotten God, and neglected too many of 
the duties that we owe Him ; but there is yet a deep con- 
sciousness under all these visible faults of character, which 
will suffice to carry us through these dangers. We can 
call up our faith in the Truth, the Christian charity for 
all men, the deep innate struggle in us as a nation for 
the Rights of man, and believe that individuals may perish, 
policies may rise and fall, great mistakes may be made 
and repented of; but the normal life of the Nation will 
increase in vigor, and prompt to new and better epochs. 
Trusting to this, let us be calm. Let us be brave, and 
consider our own sins and beg God to watch over us and 
mercifully pardon us the past. 

I conclude with a word or two concerning the distin- 
guished individual, who has been struck down by a das- 
tardly, cowardly crime. How fair was that Good Friday ! 
The sun came up with purest, whitest light ; the buoyant 



12 

air was full of Spring, and the calm hours glided away — 
the truest, best picture possible of peace. How many 
hearts were exulting thatPeace and Spring seemed coming 
in together; that magnanimity was becoming the theme 
of common consideration ; that as the quiet after a thun- 
der-storm, so the social scenery would Avitness the pause 
and tears of reconciliation and renewed brotherhood. I 
had received a letter from the distant Diocesan of Maine, 
(a man loyal to the core,) occupied with delicate scruples 
concerning our returning brethren of the Church. And 
for such a day to pass into such night — 'the heart is para- 
lyzed by it! 

But for the immortal soul, which was called so sud- 
denly to meet the award of death, has there been one 
day in all the past four years of his administration that 
Would have such an idea of Divine mercy mingled with 
it for him, When we think of him as immortal, and as 
having passed the change which meets us all ? He is be- 
lieved by all men, by his political enemies as well as his 
intimates, to have been a kind man — one easy to be en- 
treated. In mercy he Was simple and sincere. He had 
long since given orders that no one on a mission to him 
of life and death should ever be refused an audience. I 
have heard those who differed from him in political life 
declare him to be beyond question a merciful man. At 
one recital of grief I know, he broke down, and mingled 
his tears with those of the suppliant. I can testify from 
personal knowledge to his quaint but honest mercifulness 
of disposition ; willing to spare suffering to a tale of woe, 
and then struggling to conceal, Under a blunt exterior 
the tenderness of his own almost womanly sympathy. 
But on last Good Friday, of all the days of his adminis- 



13 

tration, he was probably most bent on thoughts of mercy. 
The benign influence of it had permeated the time. "We 
all felt a new hope rising up in us. Something of the old 
look had come on the faces of men and women, as we talked 
together of the future. The images of a book of an Irish 
Lord* came stealing into my own mind all the day — as he 
caresses the figure-head of his little vessel, in which he 
had been tossed in the storms and beset by the fogs and 
icebergs of the Spitsbergen seas, as she rises proudly in 
the clear water, and leaving her dangers behind, begins 
to fling the snowy foam from her bows, on her passage 
home ; and he sings how the waves 

" cowered, and ranged themselves on either side, 

Like vassal ranks who watch some passing queen 
Through her white-columned halls in silence glide, 
Nor mingling meet till she no more is seen." 

So came to me the hope of our Country, which was steal- 
ing into all hearts; of our progress out of night and perils 
to a brighter and better day. 

The Draft was suspended. What anxious multitudes of 
mothers and wives thanked God for that message! The 
materials of destruction were not to be increased. Swords 
would give way for peaceful implements of agriculture ! 
And thus I imagined him, led by the Father of him and 
us alike — mysteriously led — to thoughts of forgiveness 
and conciliation and mercy to all — led possibly un- 
consciously to imitating Him, Whose blessed words had 
moulded the civilization by which he was held, as He said, 
on that other Good Friday, "Father, forgive them, for 
they know not what they do" — and thus made ready to 
go, by ways and means beyond our finding out. 



*Lord Dufferin. Yacht Voyages, LeUera/rom high Latitudes. 



14 

Brethren, I would that he had been a church-member, 
in all the proprieties of our appointed modes of thought. 
But I wish also the same of very many of you, whom I 
shall be too weak, when the time comes, to give up, with 
Admah and Zeboim, if you do not conform as I would 
have you. But there is a perverse education in our land, 
which moulds us all to some unhappy errors of life and 
thought; and the matter is a sore perplexity. But fail- 
ing this appointed relation, which our disputes and sects 
so misrepresent and confuse in the public mind as to leave 
a divided painful responsibility, I ask you ; Could he have 
gone up to meet his Judge with a more merciful spirit 
than we suppose him to have had? He has always de- 
clared himself a believer in the Christian religion.* He 
has, beyond question, believed himself to be an appointed 
apostle of the Rights of man, as he conceived them. And 
then, with his heart full of the one grand principle of recon- 
ciliation and peace, I can leave him to the mercy of Him 
Who is the Resurrection and the Life, and to Whom we 
too shall need to appeal for mercy, rather than justice. The 
very central element of all Christian ethics rests on these 
words : "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who 

* The following words of farewell to his neighbors, on leaving them, Feb. 
11, 1861, have now a fresh and mournful interest : 

My Friends : No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at 
this parting. To this people I owe all that 1 am. Here I have lived more 
than a quarter of a century ; here my children were born, and here one of 
them lies buried. 1 know not how soon 1 shall see you again. A duty de- 
volves upon me, which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon 
any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded 
except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I 
feel thai I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, 
and on the same Almighty Being 1 place my reliance forsupporl : and 1 hope 
you, my friends, will all pray that 1 maj receive that Divine assistance, 
without which 1 cannol succeed, but with which success is certain. Again 
I bid you all an affectionate farewell. 



15 

trespass against us.*' The one side of it lie was striving 
to do fully and nobly. The other side is with his God, 
who searches and judges the heart. We lament his loss, 
with detestation at the crime ; " the deep damnation of his 
taking off." May God give comfort to the afflicted 
families, whose losses will make Good Friday memorable 
in our national records. May He give repentance to the 
wretched criminals who have stained their hands, wantonly 
and stupidly in innocent blood, before they are called 
upon to meet the just punishment of their attrocities. 
May He give us grace to understand the seriousness and 
solemnity of our duties to the government over us; and 
as He only can, bring good out of this evil. 



